A personal blog on fatherhood, music and more

Themed playlists are nothing new. The Guardian does them. 6Music does them. But as I’m always compiling themed playlists in my head I thought we’d start doing them too. At least I’ll make use of them that way.So, let’s introduce our new playlist of the month feature.

Each month we’ll post a Spotify playlist, which might be themed around a particular topic, country, artist or genre, and write a little about the tracks we’ve chosen. Given the subject matter of this blog, we thought songs about fathers and fatherhood would be appropriate for the first month.

Loudon Wainwright – Daughter

Loudon Wainwright perhaps writes more songs about family than anyone else, but this is my favourite, a sweet little number about his daughter Martha.

Martha Wainwright – Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole

And this is his daughter’s response, not quite as complimentary, written in response to her father’s habit of writing songs about his family rather than talking to them directly.

Ben Folds – Still Fighting It

A real tearjerker this one, about his son reaching adolescence. If you’re a father and can watch the video without getting a little teary, you’re harder hearted than I.

From the lead singer of one of my favourite bands, The Decemberists, a song about the sheer strangeness of bringing a new life into the world.

Thanks to Joel Bernard, author and illustrator of the soon to be released ‘Claire and the Beast’ for the heads up

David Bowie – Kooks

From the perspective of parents rather than just the father, but I think it counts. Also includes the great lyric “Don’t pick fights with the bullies or the cads ‘Cause I’m not much cop at punching other people’s Dads”

The Temptations – Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone

An absolute classic, but the Papa in question doesn’t come out of it too well. There are lots of positive songs about fatherhood, not so many about fathers it seems.

Horace Silver – Song For My Father

An instrumental, so we only have his word for it that it’s about his father, but a great piece of music either way

Cat Stevens – Father and Son

Remains a great song despite Boyzone attempting to destroy it with their cover version in the 1990s.

As always, Eminem has an unorthodox take on parenthood. This particular tale has Eminem trying to hide from his daughter the fact that he’s just murdered her mother. Perhaps not one to play in front of the kids. Tori Amos once covered this, and I recommend you listen to her version at least once, straddling the line between deeply disturbing and very silly.

Johnny Cash – A Boy Named Sue

To end on a light note, the tale of a morally dubious parenting tactic, giving your child a ridiculous name so they get in lots of fights and toughen themselves up. Not recommended in real life, but it would explain some of the baby names I’ve heard.